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30. Casanovas Heinfahrt
box 4/11
e
Tribune
Tulsa okia
News
AUG 311930
san Francisco calte
101
AUG 5 01930
Casanova Fray
Schnitzler in
Recalls Bates
Worthy Norel
Recent Tirade
·CASANOVA'S HOMECOMING,“ by Arthur
hn
itzler: Simon & Schuster, Iher New
TörkT 31
Would Suppress
For a long time we have been
chanting the praises of Herr Schnitz¬
Great Book of Century
ler and this is a good opportunity
to sing a few more notes in the
same key and on the same theme.
NEW YORK—U. —As though to
As ever, his prosc is remarkable
supply another chapter to Ernest
for its smooth, beautifully finished
Sutherland Bates' This Land of
quality and his narrative for its di¬
Liberty.“ New Fork authorities have
rect, interest-holding strain.
begun a fight to suppress a repub¬
lication of one of the trulz great
Here he tells the story of the re¬
books of the century.
Casanova's
tur of the greatest romancer of
Homecoming, by Arthur Schnitz¬
them all to Venice. Casanova is 53—
ler.
and Herr Schnitzler makes the most
Bates’ volume, published by Har¬
of the tragedy, for it is a tragedy,
per’s, is an intemperate tirade
as we weigh the novel.
against what he terms the tyranny
to which most Americans uncom¬
plainingly assent. He finds—lib¬
erty giving way to restriction in
every field—in the courts—the
press, the right of free speech.
The following chapter headings
well indicate the content of the vol¬
ume: Twisting the Constitution's
Tail:“ From the Third to the Nth
Degree: How We have Improved on
Prussia;
Intoxicated Temper¬
1
ance:“ Comstock Stalks, and
Education in Bondage.“
This Land of Liberty' is so vi¬
cious a denunciation that the cause
of liberalism might well be injured
by
the overstatement of which
Bates is quite possibly guilty. Still,
the prosecution against-the Schnitz¬
ler book is so illustrative of the
prudery, the chronic hysteria,
Argonkut
against which he rails that his
Aus 30-30
words gain emphasis.
It was in 1921 that“ Casanova's
Homecoming“ was first printed in
Schnitzler’s Casanova
English. Atrthat time it was hailed
SANorA'’s Honesourgu. Br Arthur Schnitz¬
into a magistrate's court and a
ler. Jew Vork: Simon & Schuster; 81.00.
compromise vas reached—the then
Schmitzler has written muu' novels in
publisher agreeing to withdraw the
which hie has pecred deeply into the dark
book as soon as he disposed of the
places and sub-cellars of men's souls.
first edition.
Casanova’s Homecoming“
There is a fascinating, highly polished
scribes an imaginary event in the
finishto all his work, which in itsclf is
life of the greatest adventurer of
often strong enough to carry the mind
them all when he has reached the
past incidents and situations that far ex¬
age of 53 and is returning to Venicc.
ceed the broad limits the present genera¬
There occurs a hideous seduction
tion accords a writer. Casanova's Home¬
but the scene—to which the moral
agents apparently object so stren¬
coming' is no exception tosthese general
nously—is by mo means glorified
characteristics of Schnitzler’s work. In
eroticism; rather it is a poignant
one respect this book is an even more
tragedy of advancing old age.
merciless vivisection of the human heart,
a franker confession of the sordid motives
hat sway like the tides im men’s souls.
There is a louch of-degeneracy in théf
Casanoyaof Schitzler's mungination, a
the lonz list of books br the Viennese
mudlr flaw in the ier erystals of bis
master that they have issned. It is inter¬
selfishness and sensunlitg. The author’s
esting to note that they consider this 81.00
fronr accehtuates this flaw in the storg
edttien of the book as something in a
Pof the last intrigue-the hnal disillusion¬
serious vein. Perhaps the world is in¬
ment of the great Italian amorist.
elined to take the intrigues of the great
In republishing“ Casanova’s Homccom¬
Italian lover more seriously than he did
ing. Which üirst appeared in English in himself.
1921, Sunon & Schuster hare rommled omt
Wukaros H. Ba#wen.
Daily News
St Paul Minn
SER T 1930
Casanova
CASANOVA'S HOMECOM-
ING. By Artbur SchnitzlerSimon
8 Jehutter. FI.
YT WOULD seem almost inevitable
that any novel based upon the
life of Casanova would recreate a
Casanova in the full fire of his
youth. Schnitzler's Casanova is an
inspiration.
The great lover is 53 here, and
has fallen upon evil days. After
years of exile, penniless and shabhy,
he is humbly begging the privilee
of return to his native Venice, yet
pathetically endeavoring to keep up
the swashbuckling pose of the Casa¬
nova all Italy once knew. No longer
attractive to the women he desires,
and
hi
heart knowing it
well eno
refuses to ac¬
ledge
hat he is an
isod
ain pursuit of
n
e impersonal
disgust at his
the ghastly
s a literary
ger
te brilliance.
a new
18
T
pular edition of
ublishe
a novel first
in English in
1921. News that the indefatigable
John S. Sumner already is trying to
have it suppressed will give it added
zest for the reader whio missed it
—A. C. S.
the first time.